Cherry Street Public House – Pioneer Square
Description on Cherry Street Public House‘s website: Public House is a new take on what Coffee House has capitalized on, the need for great food and great coffee under one roof. With a more seasonal approach to the food menu, Public House will be serving a rotating menu of fresh and fun ingredients. When it comes to coffee, you can expect champion quality with every cup, including fun signature beverages.
Neighborhood: Pioneer Square
Address: 210 Occidental Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104
Music playing: Sulk by Trust
What we ate/drank: Guatemala//Ethiopian doppio espresso from Counter Culture Roastes. Bagel sandwich(bacon/egg/cheese)
Comments: Cherry Street Coffee has 11 locations and been in business for 20 years. That’s saying something in Seattle. All 11 locations are near the downtown vicinity, as far north as South Lake Union and as far south as Century Link Field and furthest east being First Hill. This particular spot is their Public House, which is located in the new Weyerhaeuser HQ Building in Pioneer Square and has been open for about a year. A lot of us longtime Seattlites would never have thought a place like this would exist in Occidental Park. I moved here in the mid 90’s and it’s always been a problem area. It’s great to see the transformation of the park the last few years.
The first thing you’ll notice is how big the space is. The space is split out into three areas:
- Area to the left has a long upholstered bench and individual tables and chairs for a coffee shop area.
- The middle section is meant for eating with marble table tops.
- Area way in the back that has a high top bar for laptops.
The owner describes the intended usage for the various areas in Barista Magazine:
“Obviously one of the big things in our industry is we get people who camp out on their laptops all day. And with our space we needed to make sure that people weren’t necessarily doing that in our prime dining area. So we created zones of the cafe. There’s a laptop bar area with plug-ins built into the counter, and then some two-top cafe bar seating. But then we have the dining hall area that gives you a different experience, with nice black chairs and round tables. There are no plug-ins; you really shouldn’t be on your laptop over there. But we didn’t go so far as to put signs anywhere. My goal with this space was for everything to just make sense—for the space to tell the story. And that has worked out well so far.“
The entire front of the cafe has huge windows looking out on Occidental Park that open up and would be great in the summer. The huge windows let in a lot of natural light and make for good people watching in Occidental Park. The space also has warm lighting which makes it good for relaxing in the evenings and a great meet up spot for First Thursday Art Walk in Pioneer Sq.
On this visit, I had a Guatemala/Ethiopian blend doppio espresso and a bagel sandwich with bacon, egg and cheese. I think the person who took my order was new and needed help from a colleague to make my espresso, but it tasted great and she was very pleasant and apologetic about the wait. I wasn’t in a hurry, but I appreciate it. Since it’s a public house, it’s gotta have alcohol. They’ve got beer on tap, wines and specialty cocktails. The family that owns Cherry St Coffee is originally from Iran, so the menu has heavy Persian influences-Persian stew of either beef/lamb, chicken or vegetarian seem to be the main dishes. For breakfast they have the usual avocado toast, waffles, breakfast sandwiches, scones and a house made quiche. Lunch options include the Persian stew, falafel, gyro, blt, salad and soup.
When I first got there, they were playing some odd synthpop music that didn’t really fit the atmosphere of the space, but that soon changed(see Eavesdropping Convo section below).
Cherry Street Public House closes at 5:00 on weekends and 7:00 on weekdays except on Thursday when they close at 8:30, because they have free live entertainment.
This place will definitely give La Marzocco a run for its money as a great place to meet up if you have a group of people.
Ratings(1-5)
Favorite Thing: Having the option of coffee, booze, food and the ability to people watch in Occidental Park.
Atmosphere: 5
Service: 5
Food Options: 4.75
Overall: 5
Eavedropping Convo: Lady talking on phone with the speaker on while eating. This was way across the room and this place is pretty big so you know she was loud and had the speaker on full blast. Annoying.
Lady-I’m having breakfast at a cafe in Seattle right now. My flight leaves in a few hours. It’s super gloomy outside. I guess it really is true what they say about Seattle. How are things going?
Person on phone via speaker-Oh, you know. Puppy is doing fine. She is sooooo cute, but a handful.
There was more smalll talk for about 7 minutes for the entire cafe to hear.
Then………..I’m not sure if the workers turned up the volume on their overhead speakers or if it was a coincidence but Dancing Queen by ABBA started playing at a noticeably higher volume. So much so that she had to put the phone to her ear now. She left about 2 minutes later because she could no longer carry on the conversation. She didn’t even bus her dishes. If the workers increased the volume, Thank You Cherry Street Public House! If it was just a coincidence, Thank You, Universe.